20 May 2009

Kedah has a long history. The Bujang Valley has remains of a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that dates back to the 4th century AD, making it the oldest civilization of Peninsular Malaysia . The current royal family can trace their ancestry from this time. According to Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa or the Kedah Annals, Kedah was founded by a Hindu king named Merong Mahawangsa . According to the text further, the Sultanate of Kedah started in year 1136 when the 9th King Phra Ong Mahawangsa converted to Islam and adopted the name Sultan Mudzafar Shah.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, Kedah was under the domination of Srivijaya , and was later under Siam , until the rise of the Malay sultanate of Melaka in the 15th century. In the 17th century, Kedah was attacked by the Portuguese after their conquest of Melaka, and by Aceh . In the hope that Great Britain would protect what remained of Kedah from Siam, the sultan handed over Penang and then Province Wellesly to the British at the end of the 18th century. The Siamese nevertheless conquered Kedah in 1811, and it remained under Siamese control until transferred to the British by the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 .

In World War II , Kedah (along with Kelantan ) was the first part of Malaya to be invaded by Japan . The Japanese returned Kedah to their Thai allies who had it renamed Syburi , but it returned to British rule after the end of the war. Kedah was a reluctant addition to the Federation Of Malaysia in 1948.

Since 1958, the hereditary Sultan of Kedah has been Tunku Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah . The Kedah Sultanate began when the 9th Kedah Maharaja Derbar Raja AD) converted to Islam and changed his name to Sultan Muzaffar Shah. Since then there have been 27 Sultans who ruled Kedah. The Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) is currently Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak of (Pakatan Rakyat - PAS )